The information provided in this web page about the origin of our surname was mostly derived from Laurence Fretwell's book titled "The Fretwell Pedigree: Volume 1." I have summarized in places and plagiarized word-for-word in others.
The conjectures about the "meaning" of our surname, however, are solely mine.
(Marvin Fretwell, October, 2004) -----------------------------------------------
Much has been hypothesized about the origin of the surname "Fretwell." Unfortunately, some of this conjecture has been passed on as fact.
The purpose of this brief article is to describe the true origin of our surname, and to explain why one popular conjecture is wrong. We'll start with the wrong conjecture first.
There is a Frechevill family line, whose ancestry is well documented. It is distinct from the Fretwell line. There has never been any evidence found to suggest that any true branch of the Fretwell lineage is derived from a mutational change of the Frechevill surname.
The Frechevill surname is traceable back to the time of the Norman invasion of France, and is a Norman name. The Fretwell name is traceable back almost as far--and probably also is of Norman extraction. Nonetheless, these two family lines are distinct. Laurence Fretwell's book, "The Fretwell Pedigree, Volume 1", provides the full ancestry of the Frechevill's, and shows that they were distinct right up to the time of that surname's extinction.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that the two family lines are distinct, and the lack of evidence of any mutational change of names, the legend persists that today's Fretwells are descendants of the Frechevill line. Why is this?
One probable reason for the misconception is that the pronunciations of the two names are so similar. One actual case illustrates the problem. Lord John Frechevill, keeper of the Castle of York, was ordered to escort George Fox, founder of the Quaker Movement, from prison in York Castle to London for an audience with the king. In his journal, George Fox, who was unfamiliar with the Frechevill name, describes Lord John Frechevill as Lord John Fretwell. In other words, Fox applied his own (English) spelling to this Norman name. In all editions of Fox's Journal published after 1740 this mistake was corrected with an explanatory footnote. This famous George Fox mistake is but one of many. Numerous official records of Frechevills in England misspell their names by anglicizing them, with many results, including Fretwell. But, a mistaken spelling does not establish a blood line.
Another probable reason is that the legend has created its own reality-- perversely backwards in its effect. At least one Fretwell became so convinced the original spelling of his family's name was Frechevill that he changed his last name to Frechevill. Thus, he created a link, albeit a false and reverse link--the Frechevill's of his lineage are descendants of Fretwells, the reverse of what he believed to be the facts.
Nonetheless, the Frechevill family line does not intersect the Fretwell family line; except in one instance where a male Fretwell married a female Frechevill (to be explained shortly); which, of course, does not change (or mutate) our surname, because family lines follow the males of the family.
The first written record of the name Fretewell is for one Miles de Fretewell in 1196 AD. His name, "de Fretewell," means "of Fretewell village." Today this English village still exists. Today it is known as Fritwell; but, in the year 1196 it was called Fretewell. The name of the village has morphed in its spelling many times over the centuries, but has retained its essential pronunciation throughout, as the following extract from "Oxfordshire Place-Names" makes clear:
"FRITWELL [fritl] Fertwelle 1086 AD DB [Domesday Book] Fertewelle1086 AD DB, 1154 Eynsh Fretwell(a) 1166 AD 1203-6 AD (both c.1425) Frid, Frettwell 1231 FF (p) Fretewell 1166 AD (c. 1310) Frid et passim with variant spellings Frettewell, Freteuill', Fretewell(e), Fretewella, Fretevelle to 1428 FA Frettewell c. 1170-80 AD (c. 1425) Frid et freq with variant spellings Frettewell', Fretteuill' to 1241-2 P Fret(t)eswell' 1200 AD Cur Fredewell 1201 AD Cur Frethewelle (ter) c. 1210 AD Eynsh, Fretthewel' c. 1280 AD Os Fritewell' 1225-6 AD WellsR, 1235-6, 1242-3 AD Fees, Frittewelle c.1230 AD Os (p), Frytewelle 1390 AD Cl, Frytewell 1537 AD Frid Frutewelle c. 1230 AD Os (p), Frutewell 1278-9 AD RH, 1316 AD Ch Frytwell 1526 AD LS Frightwell 1580 AD
Probably as suggested in Alexander, 'wishing well,' from Old English freht, fyrht, firht, 'augury,'and w(i)elle."
Our family surname, therefore, comes from the name of a small English village, Fritwell. Both our surname and the name of the village have had many spelling variations, depending on the century, but Frechevill is not one of these spelling variants.
Recall the Fretwell fellow who was so convinced his true surname was Frechevill that he changed his surname, and created a lineage of Frechevills who once were Fretwells--the exact opposite case of that which we are attempting to refute? I found this mistake interesting and a bit amusing. But, there is an even more amazing twist of history, which follows.
Miles de Fretewell, who boasts the first recorded use of our family name, got married. Now whom do you suppose he married? He married Millicent, a Frechevill! The first recorded Fretwell--whom we strongly suspect is our most ancient ancestor named Fretwell--married the only Frechevill ever to cross our family line, so far as we can determine.
So, we have one Frechevill in our ancestry--if we happen to be of the blood line from Miles de Fretewell--but this Frechevill is along our matriarchal blood line, not our patriarchal blood line. The significance of this distinction in blood lines is that our surname, which follows the husband's surname, absolutely does not derive from the surname Frechevill. (But our matriarchal blood line might.)
We don't know, and possibly never will know the meaning of our surname. It may never have had any real meaning beyond the name of a town, or its meaning may have been lost in antiquity.
Lots of English surnames end in "well," which strongly suggests that the "well" suffix has some meaning. But what? We simply do not know. We did a search of the book, "The Complete Book of Emigrants, 1607-1776," which lists over 195,000 British emigrants to the U.S. For this 169 year period, here is a listing of the British emigrant surnames that ended in "well:"
Aldwell, Ashwell, Attwell, Atwell, Backwell, Bagwell, Bakewell, Banwell, Barkwell, Barnewell, Barnwell, Bedwell, Bickewell, Bickwell, Blackwell, Boswell, Bowell, Boxwell, Bozwell, Bradwell, Brangwell, Brewell, Brightwell, Brockwell, Bromwell, Brumwell, Budwell, Burtwell, Butwell, Bywell, Cadewell, Callwell, Cantwell, Chadwell, Chapwell, Chatwell, Cogswell, Cornwell, Cotswell, Cowell, Cranwell, Creswell, Cromwell, Croswell, Culverwell, Dapwell, Dewell, Dowdwell, Drabwell, Eriswell, Ewell, Fardwell, Farwell, Fowell, Foxwell, Fretwell, Friswell, Gladwell, Goldwell, Goswell, Gouldwell, Gradwell, Greenwell, Griswell, Hackwell, Hadwell, Haistwell, Halliwell, Hallowell, Hannewell, Harrwell, Hastwell, Hatchwell, Higwell, Hopewell, Howell, Irwell, Jewell, Karsewell, Kerswell, Kewell, Kidwell, Kingswell, Ludwell, Maidwell, Markhowell, Maxwell, McDowell, Medwell, Newell, Nowell, Orwell, Ottawell, Owell, Pepwell, Pladwell, Pleadwell, Pluckwell, Powell, Pyewell, Radwell, Rathwell, Rimwell, Rithwell, Rockwell, Rodwell, Rosewell, Rothwell, Rowell, Rowsewell, Rowswell, Saiewell, Satchwell, Savewell, Sawell, Saywell, Seawell, Sedwell, Sewell, Seywell, Shadwell, Shallwell, Sherwell, Showell, Sickwell, Stockwell, Sydwell, Thelwell, Timewell, Towell, Tredwell, Truckwell, Warrwell, Wiswell, and Wombwell.
Not only do many British surnames end in "well." So do the names of many British towns. From the same sourcebook, we searched for town names of origin for British emigrants, and found these results:
Backwell, Banwell, Belchwell, Britwell, Camberwell, Chickenwell, Clerkenwell, Cothelwell, Crickhowell, Crudwell, Dunkeswell, Eastwell, Elmswell, Ewell, Hanwell, Mewell, Nauntwell, Netteswell, Prittlewell, Roxwell, Shadwell, Stanwell, Stockwell, Wherwell, and Wortwell.
Even though we have pretty high confidence that our surname suffix has some meaning, we must be careful looking for obvious meanings. When one seeks meaning in a surname it can quickly get ludicrous if one is not extremely careful.
Despite the warnings, there are some of us who really, really want to speculate about the meaning in our surname. So here is a brief discussion of the possibilities we have heard, however unlikely.
The first conjectured meaning, proposed in "Oxfordshire Place-Names " is "wishing well", as suggested by "Alexander," whoever Alexander may be. (This Alexander, unfortunately, is a reference I have not been able to locate.) He suggests that the Old English freht, fyrht, firht, means "augury." He equates augury with "wishing" and w(i)elle" with "well," thereby suggesting that our surname means wishing well.
Perhaps Alexander is right. Also, perhaps not. It seems equally plausible that the normal meaning of augury was intended, which is "divination." At first blush, it seems that if one divinates wells, then perhaps the old Fretewells were "water witchers"--persons who tell others where to dig wells, based on the divinations of a forked stick (divining rod) in their hands? I don't present this alternative seriously, rather, just to demonstrate how easily the entire meaning can be plausibly changed.
Perhaps the name of the village of Fritwell has no meaning at all? Or perhaps it means the well water of the town give its drinkers special powers of divination?
One other conjecture is that the early English word "frith" (like a fret on the neck of a guitar) meant "a meeting place." The meeting place might have been by a well.
Another conjecture, from the late Lloyd Fretwell of Soap Lake, Washington, is that it simply meant a public drinking place. A place to meet and drink.
Although we may never know the real meaning of our surname, the conjecture I like the best--perhaps because I came up with it myself (?)--is that "well" is simply the English variation of the Norman suffix, "ville;" i.e.--a village.
Clearly, the true meaning, if one ever existed, is unknown at this time. I personally place little confidence in the idea that our surname suffix, "well," means a water well, or any other kind of hole in the ground.